-- After living in two major southern metropolitan areas for most of her life - Nashville and Charlotte, N.C. - Susie Masotti has discovered the joys of living in a much smaller town when she moved to Madison six weeks ago.

"I can get anywhere in town in about 10 minutes from my office," said Masotti, the new executive director of the Madison Chamber of Commerce. "When I lived in Nashville, it took over an hour to make the 12-mile trip to and from my office. I don't miss the traffic."

She quickly learned to avoid Hughes Road during the rush hours, which are actually mild compared to Nashville. Otherwise, she is finding her way around Madison using her GPS and by taking back roads so she will know the city's landscape when speaking on behalf of the chamber in her new role.

"I'm very excited about it," said Masotti, the mother of 8-year-old twins, Katy and Michael, who are in Nashville with their father and her husband, Michael Masotti, until the school holiday break. The family will be reunited by Christmas.

The job commute will be a little long for her husband, a photographer with Reuters News Service who photographs Tennessee Titans football and Nashville Predators hockey games.

While her immediate family is high on her list of priorities and one reason she wanted to move to a smaller town where life is "slower paced, Masotti said she immediately "fell in love" with her adopted city of Madison family.

She has big plans for not only her new little city, but the entire north central Alabama area as well.

"One of my biggest goals is creating bridges between the surrounding cities," she said. "We need to work together with Huntsville, Madison County, Decatur and Athens. We are all one big family and it's a win-win situation for us all when we work together."

A native of Durham, N.C., she attended Gardner Webb College (now university) and earned a degree in business management. She went to work for the owner of a small chain of business schools who decided he wanted to get into the professional sports arena by owning a franchise.

"He asked, 'Who wants to go to work with the NBA?' and I jumped at the chance," said Masotti who was instrumental in getting the new Charlotte Hornets franchise on its feet as the team's director of sponsor services.

She worked there for 10 years before joining the Nashville Predators when it joined the NHL in 1997. She was vice president of premium seating and sponsorship, which kept her hopping with some 100 events per year in the Music City.

But the long work weeks of sometimes more than 80 hours were beginning to take a toll on her family life. She turned 50 this year and decided to check out some other career avenues when she saw a notice about the Madison Chamber of Commerce job posted on the Internet.

She applied and "was heads and shoulders above the rest," said Madison Mayor Paul Finley.

"My job now is similar to what I was doing with the Predators," she said. "It's paying attention to customers and helping them with their needs. It was a natural fit for me."

New Madison Chamber Executive Director Susie Masotti has big plans for her new town. (The Huntsville Times/Glenn Baeske)

The chamber's board of directors recently completed a strategic plan which made it easy for Masotti to hit the ground running without trying to figure out what direction she needs to go.

"One of the areas of focus is finances," she said. "The Madison Chamber of Commerce needs to be a stand-alone entity. We are grateful for the support of the city, but we need to use that money to focus more on small business than to worry about it for administrative uses."

She is also going to place a bigger emphasis on improving public relations with the membership team through the use of a variety of media outlets.

"We want to enhance the image of the chamber," she said.

Masotti also wants to increase the membership beyond its 450 members which was at a high of around 500 a year or so ago, according to Felicia McInnish, the chamber's marketing and communications coordinator.

"People just didn't feel they were getting enough bang for their buck, which is why they started dropping their membership," said Masotti. "We want to not only grow our membership base, but focus on retention as well."

She is especially targeting small businesses, which actually make up most of the chamber's membership. She plans to reach out to business owners throughout the year via emails, phone calls and/or personal visits to find out how the chamber can help grow their business.

In October before Masotti arrived, the chamber started a monthly two-hour seminar to provide educational and training opportunities for small business owners unable to afford professional development events or have time to attend them.

Masotti has already become acquainted with many Madison residents.

"I told my husband by the time he gets here, I will probably already see people I know when we go to a restaurant," she said. "You could go out 10 times in Nashville and never see anyone you know.